When Tomas boarded the rickety craftin Mariel, deck swarming with strangers,no life jackets, sun flirtingwith incoming clouds, the teenageralready missed his girlfriendwho’d stayed behind, pregnant with his child.I’ll bring you both to America, he’d said—words that still haunt him.

Decades later, in a neat bungalowin South Amboy, Santeria candles burnin a small shrine surroundedwith flowers. On the stove, pungentarroz con pollo simmers.Tomas explains after the boat landed,he had to give up his passport;in return, ten bucks and a bus ticket.

Stateless, no papers, he’s raisedthree children born here--their mother in prison.Always one question awayfrom deportation, but to where?Castro doesn’t want me either, he says,and who would care for my children?

Tomas supports his familyin a shadow economy--in his driveway, a derelict carhe’s fixing up to swap.

He shows me photos of a sonhe’s never met—his first-born--a captain in the Cuban armyand another photoof his mother cradlinghis dark-eyed granddaughter.I hope to see my motherone more time before she dies.

*Author Note: In the 1980s, 125,000 Cubans left from the port of Mariel in what was called the Freedom Flotilla.

Author Bio:Nancy Scott is the managing editor of U.S.1 Worksheets, the journal of the U.S.1 Poets’ Cooperative in New Jersey. She is the author of eight books of poetry: Down to the Quick (Plain View Press, 2007), One Stands Guard, One Sleeps (Plain View Press, 2009), A Siege of Raptors (Finishing Line Press, 2010), Detours & Diversions (Main Street Rag, 2011), On Location (March Street Press, 2011), Midwestern Memories (Aldrich Press, 2013), Running Down Broken Cement (Main Street Rag, 2014) and The Owl Prince (Aldrich Press, 2015). She began writing poetry as a way to record the stories she had heard during more than 35 years as a caseworker for the State of New Jersey and an advocate in the non-profit sector for abused and neglected children and for homeless families. She is also an adoptive parent and a former foster parent. www.nancyscott.net